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ChurchNext
paperback
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- Length: 252 pages
- Published: March 24, 2000
- Imprint: IVP
- Item Code: 2261
- ISBN: 9780830822614
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Other Retailers:
Amazon*
Christianbook.com*
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- A 2001 Christianity Today Book of the Year
What will the church be next?
CHANGE IS NOW. Competition from nontraditional and Eastern religions join with the pressures of both modernism and postmodernism to squeeze Christianity.
While new church models have sprung up to meet these challenges, they each have strengths and limitations. Eddie Gibbs, a well-known church strategist and practitioner, candidly analyzes these models while proposing nine areas in which the church will need to transform to be biblically true to its message and its mission to the world.
With vigor and insight Gibbs shows how we can move
- from living in the past to engaging the present
- from being market driven to being mission oriented
- from following celebrities to encountering saints
- from holding dead orthodoxy to nurturing living faith
- from attracting a crowd to seeking the lost
Here is a book that brings together deep understanding of the quantum shifts taking place in our culture along with concrete suggestions for implementing a proactive mission strategy.
"Every responsible pastor and church leader must think through the issues this book presents so helpfully. While only the Holy Spirit can keep the church's edge sharp and its salt tangy, I think he may be using Eddie Gibbs to help us keep alert to him. All of us charged with God-ordained mission need to prayerfully think and carefully answer the hour so well defined here."
"Eddie Gibbs has written one of the clearest and most compelling books available on what churches need to do in this century to break out of standard, time-worn approaches to building and revitalizing congregations. He calls for fresh new approaches based on a biblical vision of the role of the church, urging us to move from maintenance to mission, from dead orthodoxy to living faith. Religious leaders, clergy and lay, would do well to have this book on their desk at all times."
"This book is descriptive, prescriptive, visionary and brutally honest. It is one of the half-dozen indispensable texts for informing the emerging shape of the church."
"ChurchNext is for the veteran church leader who wants to evaluate his philosophy of ministry. It is regularly insightful, though requiring a careful read, and would serve well for graduate studies on church renewal."
"Gibbs analyzes the new church models that are springing up and proposes nine areas that the church needs to change in order to be true to its message and its mission."
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. From Living in the Past to Engaging with the Present
2. From Market Driven to Mission Oriented
3. From Bureaucratic Hierarchies to Apostolic Networks
4. From Schooling Professionals to Mentoring Leaders
5. From Following Celebrities to Encountering Saints
6. From Dead Orthodoxy to Living Faith
7. From Attracting a Crowd to Seeking the Lost
8. From Belonging to Believing
9. From Generic Congregations to Incarnational Communities
Notes
Index of Names
Index of Subjects
